Page 47 of The Auction

“You didn’t love me back.”

“I’m an idiot. Now shush. It’s starting.”

Kingsley came back to the stage and introduced their last prize before the intermission. Daniel’s hands went numb and his heart fluttered painfully as Anya stepped onto the stage and clung to Kingsley’s hand.

“My God…” Daniel breathed. He’d never seen a more beautiful woman in his life. Anya wore a simple gown of pure white. Two small braids formed a crown around her head like a halo while the rest of her long red-black hair fell in waves down her back. On her face she wore a tight smile and a look of sadness tinged with fear in her eyes.

Kingsley kissed the back of her hand, whispered something in her ear, and left the stage.

Daniel’s heart pounded ferociously in his chest. The auctioneer took the stage again and began the bidding.

“Let’s begin the bidding at fifty thousand dollars.”

“What do you want me to bid?” Eleanor asked in a whisper.

“What was the winning bid last time for the grand prize?”

“A lot.”

One man in the crowd bid the fifty. Another man bid sixty-nine thousand, which led to a round of laughter from the crowd. Daniel memorized that bidder’s face so he could find it and break it later. Meanwhile Anya waited on the stage, doing her best impression of a statue.

Yet another man bid ninety-thousand.

Then a gasp rippled through the crowd.

Someone had just bid two-hundred thousand dollars. But not just any someone.

“Holy fuck…” Eleanor breathed. “Blondie just on bid on Anya.”

She clasped her hand over her mouth in obvious shock.

Daniel stared across the crowd and found Eleanor’s owner smiling dangerously at him. No, not smiling. Smirking. And Daniel saw a message in that smirk, a message that read,You had mine. Now I’ll have yours.

Kingsley stood next to him, holding a checkbook in his hand.

“Son of a bitch,” Daniel said. “What the hell is Søren doing, bidding on Anya?”

“Punishing you for trying to steal me? Mindfuck? Decided to dump me and this is how he’s telling me? All of the above?”

“Any other bids?” The auctioneer gazed around the crowd.

“I can’t let you bid for me,” Daniel said. “Not against your owner.”

“He’s making me pick again,” she said. “You or him.”

“Fuck,” Daniel breathed.

“Do you love her?” Eleanor asked.

“I want to. But I—”

“It’s okay,” she said with a smile. “You can pick her over me. I promise.”

Daniel wrenched his eyes from Eleanor’s handsome smirking owner and looked at Anya. He’d warned her a sadist might bid on her and clearly, from the look of abject terror on her face, she knew exactly who that sadist was.Thesadist.

“How much do you want me to bid?” Eleanor asked.

“If there are no further bids,” the auctioneer said.

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